n serve you well, and I can love you well." She shrank
away from him. "No, do not turn from me, for in very truth, Leicester's
heart has been pierced by the inevitable arrow. You think I mean you
evil?"

He paused with a sudden impulse continued: "No! no! And if there be a
saving grace in marriage, marriage it shall be, if you will but hear me.
You shall be my wife--Leicester's wife. As I have mounted to power so
I will hold power with you--with you, the brightest spirit that ever
England saw. Worthy of a kingdom with you beside me, I shall win to
greater, happier days; and at Kenilworth, where kings and queens have
lodged, you shall be ruler. We will leave this Court until Elizabeth,
betrayed by those who know not how to serve her, shall send for me
again. Here--the power behind the throne--you and I will sway this realm
through the aging, sentimental Queen. Listen, and look at me in the
eyes--I speak the truth, you read my heart. You think I hated you and
hated De la Foret. By all the gods, it's true I hated him, because I saw
that he would come between me and the Queen. A man must have one great
passion. Life itself must be a passion. Power was my passion--power,
not the Queen. You have broken all that down. I yield it all to you--for
your sake and my own. I would steal from life yet before my sun goes to
its setting a few years of truth and honesty and clear design. At
heart I am a patriot--a loyal Englishman. Your cause--the cause of
Protestantism--did I not fight for it at Rochelle? Have I not ever urged
the Queen to spend her revenue for your cause, to send her captains and
her men to fight for it?"

She raised her head in interest, and her lips murmured: "Yes, yes, I
know you did that."

He saw his advantage and pursued it. "See, I will be honest with
you--honest, at last, as I have wished in vain to be, for honesty was
misunderstood. It is not so with you--you understand. Dear, light of
womanhood, I speak the truth now. I have been evil in my day I admit
it--evil because I was in the midst of evil. I betrayed because I was
betrayed; I slew, else I should have been slain. We have had dark days
in England, privy conspiracy and rebellion; and I have had to thread my
way through dreadful courses by a thousand blind paths. Would it be
no joy to you if I, through your influence, recast my life--remade
my policy, renewed my youth--pursuing principle where I have pursued
opportunity? Angele, come to Kenilworth with